Around the Year in 52 Books is a Goodreads group that creates a user-generated reading challenge each year. This listopia is dedicated to one of our 2023 prompts. Please do not vote on these lists unless you are participating in our reading challenge!

Prompt: A book related to a chess piece

The chess pieces are:
The Pawn
The Knight
The Bishop
The Rook
The Queen
The King
1

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3.92 avg rating — 278,480 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 134,426 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 62,591 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 113,857 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 42,275 ratings
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6

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4.32 avg rating — 1,336,390 ratings
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7

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3.68 avg rating — 12,813 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 155,471 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,001,111 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 233,995 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,143,225 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,071 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 546,315 ratings
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14

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4.25 avg rating — 194,749 ratings
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15

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4.17 avg rating — 78,851 ratings
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16

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3.75 avg rating — 1,844,180 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,014,895 ratings
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18

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3.66 avg rating — 14,738 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 624,183 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,305,646 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 820,185 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 162,930 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,145 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 46,633 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 75,732 ratings
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26

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4.29 avg rating — 432,372 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,027,700 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 53,639 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 129,643 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,690,713 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 39,888 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 142,261 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,085,368 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,029 ratings
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35

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4.34 avg rating — 926,007 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,185 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,276 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,750 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,027,023 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,006,292 ratings
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41

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3.86 avg rating — 98,661 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,084 ratings
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43

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3.92 avg rating — 73,102 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 211,768 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 58,805 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 110,100 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,080 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 815,550 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 116,869 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 389,911 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 3,597 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,054 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,360 ratings
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54

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3.96 avg rating — 32,520 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,208 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 65,651 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 638,840 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 77,265 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,104 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 5,790 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 181,289 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 354,760 ratings
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63

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 162,858 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 134,481 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,494 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 5,947 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,513 ratings
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68

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3.74 avg rating — 18,475 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 159,515 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,095,917 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 999,701 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 45,656 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,791 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 54,911 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,164 ratings
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76

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4.13 avg rating — 1,024,596 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,485 ratings
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76

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3.83 avg rating — 15,587 ratings
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79

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3.91 avg rating — 4,423 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,371 ratings
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79

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4.28 avg rating — 408 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,080 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 72,758 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,556 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,360 ratings
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84

by
3.75 avg rating — 78,827 ratings
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84

by
3.73 avg rating — 2,858 ratings
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88

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4.19 avg rating — 591,527 ratings
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88

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3.89 avg rating — 1,976 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 68,757 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 438,348 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,630 ratings
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93

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4.35 avg rating — 78,199 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 290,547 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,748 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,194 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,532 ratings
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98

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4.25 avg rating — 157,900 ratings
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98

by
4.16 avg rating — 15,803 ratings
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100

by
3.66 avg rating — 4,169 ratings
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720 books · 100 voters · list created August 29th, 2022 by Emily Bourque (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


dalex 554 books
52 friends
Louise 4427 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13083 books
230 friends
Sydney 591 books
14 friends
Hélène 2883 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2646 books
66 friends
Pamela 2173 books
88 friends
Marie 3925 books
8 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Mandy (last edited Aug 29, 2022 09:47AM) (new)

Mandy here are some other names for pieces.

Minister, top, lady, tower, vizier, horse, officer

A link for finding international piece names. unfortunately, unless you can read the language, google translate will be your friend.

www. schach-chess. com / chess-pieces .htm


message 2: by NancyJ (last edited Aug 29, 2022 12:43PM) (new)

NancyJ I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad.


message 3: by Dubhease (new)

Dubhease Rooks are sometimes called a castle, a tower, and an elephant in various cultures.


message 4: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque NancyJ wrote: "I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad."

Totally understand if you don't want to include those books in this prompt, NancyJ (I personally don't plan to) but I'll allow them to remain on the listopia for people who may want to broaden the prompt to that.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Dubhease wrote: "Rooks are sometimes called a castle ... in various cultures."

Agreed


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Mandy wrote: "here are some other names for pieces.

... horse ..."
I so agree


message 7: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen OK... The Count of Monte Cristo?
A Discovery of Witches?
11/22/63?
Writers and Lovers?
Euphoria?
The Uncommon Reader?
Rosemary and Rue?
How are these related to chess pieces? People should be motivating their votes here, too.

And, no, words with -king on them shouldn't count. I know this is just a reading challenge and not serious or so, but why would people join a reading challenge if they don't plan to challenge themselves in any way? I mean, I can accept "royals", and "rookie", but there are TONS of books with "king", "queen", "horse" and "tower" to choose from, without needing to go that far out to fish. One could just as well select any 52 books and then come up with far-fetched motivations.

BTW, in Finnish the pieces are called the King, the Queen, the Messenger, the Horse (Steed), the Tower and the Soldier
in Swedish: king, lady, runner, horse, tower, peasant
in Estonian: king, flag, spear, horse, wagon, forerunner


message 8: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque A reminder, Ketutar, that everyone approaches the challenge in a different way. We encourage people to put notes on their votes explaining how the book fits, but at the end of the day, it is up to each person using the listopia to decide if a book fits for them or not. We aren't here to judge how or why someone chooses to complete our challenge.

I appreciate your listing the different words used in different languages! That's very helpful!


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